Product Description

In May Church House Publishing are launching the Church of England's new Daily Office Book under the title Common Worship Daily Prayer. This book has been modelled on Continuum's bestselling Celebrating Common Prayer. To coincide with the launch we are launching Celebrating Daily Prayer, an updated pocket edition of Celebrating Common Prayer. In May 2005 The Church of England published the definitive version of its new Daily Office book, Common Worship Daily Prayer. The new office book is based on The Society of St Francis' bestselling Celebrating Common Prayer, published by Continuum. Celebrating Daily Prayer is the compact edition of Common Worship Daily Prayer and the new edition of the pocket edition of Celebrating Common Prayer. Whilst retaining all the essential features of the full office book, Celebrating Daily Prayer condenses Common Worship Daily Prayer into a user-friendly, portable format, ideal for personal use. The main features of Celebrating Daily Prayer are the integration of the Psalms and Collects into the office setting and the inclusion of a short reading for each day, making this edition particularly suitable for personal prayer. All the texts in Celebrating Daily Prayer are in line with recent revisions to the Common Worship Daily Prayer.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #69900 in Books
• Published on: 2005-06-16
• Original language: English
• Binding: Hardcover
• 384 pages

About the Author
David Stancliffe is the Bishop of Salisbury and Head of the Liturgical Commision.

Customer Reviews

Minor glitches don't spoil (for me) an impressive work
'Celebrating Daily Prayer' in fact fulfils two roles. It is the latest title in the 'Celebrating Common Prayer' series (which are based on the daily office of the Anglican Franciscans) – presumably it succeeds the 'CCP Pocket Edition' [2002]. However it also claims to be a pocket edition of 'Common Worship: Daily Prayer' [2005] (the official daily prayer book of the Church of England), in that it uses the Psalter, canticles and prayers from that volume. In fact these latter two volumes are closely linked, not least by the heavy involvement of David Stancliffe, Bishop of Salisbury.

I have never used CCP, but do use CW:DP, so my comments may be slightly misinformed!

For CW:DP users like myself, the purpose of buying a volume like this is to have a single, compact book which contains everything you need – no extra lectionary or bible required – for use on holiday or when commuting. This volume does contain everything you need, but it is a little disingenuous to describe it as ‘pocket-sized’ – it’s height and width are only slightly smaller than CW:DP, although it is much thinner, at under 400 pages (rather than almost 900), and considerably lighter.

The most notable omission is the lack of any ‘Prayer During the Day’ office, which could be used for mid-day prayer in CW:DP. This is understandable for reasons of space – the introduction suggests you just say the Anglus Domini at mid-day (which is included, in modern English). Night Prayer looks pretty much identical to the provision in CW:DP, although without the seasonal psalms.

In Morning and Evening Prayer, the lectionary readings are about the length of those in ‘Prayer During the Day’ from the final edition of CW:DP, although there are rather more of them – seven passages for each of Morning and Evening, times seven ‘forms’ of the office, so about 100 overall. Unlike CW:DP, each seasonal form of the office doubles up as a form of the office for a day of the week in Ordinary Time (e.g. ‘form 2’ is used for Pentecost, *and* Mondays in Ordinary Time). Psalms are printed within the office (about two-thirds of the Psalter is included overall).

My only real disappointment with Celebrating Daily Prayer is that it does not offer all the options available in CW:DP. There is no indication of what is optional in the text itself - effectively the book makes the decisions for you. In particular:

* The short prayer just before the psalmody (“The night has passed, and the day lies open before us...”) is excluded.
* Psalm refrains are excluded.
* The Gloria Patri (“Glory to the Father...”) at the end of the psalmody is exluded – but psalm collects (an alternative) are included.
* There is no indication that, if more than one reading is being used, one or more may be said between the psalmody and the first canticle
* The responsary to the reading is much shorter (more like ‘Prayer During the Day’ in CW:DP).

There is also some inconsistency in the language, making it harder to find what you’re looking for – e.g. “general prayers of intercession” in CW:DP are “litanies” in CDP; “the litany” in CW:DP is “the great litany” here. Most of the seasonal prayers of intercession in CW:DP are to be found within the appropriate seasonal form of Morning Prayer in CDP, rather than separately at the back. Also, the cycle of intercession in CDP is different to the one in the final edition of CW:DP (I think it might be based on the cycle in the preliminary edition of CW:DP [2002], as there are three items for each day/season rather than five, which makes me wonder what else here is based on that earlier version of CW:DP.

Nevertheless, although these niggles are numerous, they are pretty minor for me, and I recommend it heartily. I still use CW:DP when I’m at home (for Morning Prayer) with my lectionary, study bible and commentaries, but for Evening Prayer on the bus back, or for taking on holiday, this is ideal.

An Office for the people
I am a parish priest recently arrived in a new parish where there had been no tradition of gathering to say a daily office. Bishop Stancliffe's beautiful little office booked has been immediately taken up by folk who found it easy to use from day one. Its simple accessible and, because its simple, people find themselves praying rather than spending fifteen minutes trying to work out which page they were on.

I can't see myself using any of the "Occassional Services" section and perhaps those twenty seven pages could have been better used. I think its major weakness (though it is better than CW Daily Prayer in this respect) is the provision of material for intercessions. Yes, I would have prefered the Gloria at the end of the Psalms and I cant quite understand why there is a refrain provided for the Canticles but not the Psalms but I do like the fact that there are few "options" which only ever lead to confusion.

If clergy need something more substantial - a monastic office rather than this Cathedral type office - why not try augmenting this provision with the use of Prayer During the Day from Common Worship Daily Prayer as an office of readings. I find that works really well.

I love this book and my folk do too.